The Department of Health, Health Education England and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges have agreed changes to the arrangements for processing applications for MTI Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) from applicants from countries other than those identified as DfID priority countries or World Bank Low Income and Lower Middle Income Countries (LI&LMI).
It has been reaffirmed by the Department of Health, Health Education England and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges that the priority focus of the MTI is to provide training opportunities for doctors from DfID priority or LI&LMI countries and have therefore now stated that applicants from countries not considered DfID priority or LI&LMI countries can have no guarantee or expectation of receiving an MTI CoS.
The current prioritising system has been working effectively but has had unintended consequences for applicants not from DfID priority and LI&LMI countries. These applications were considered at the end of each month and CoS’s allocated if there was available capacity from the monthly quota once the allocations to DfID priority and LI&LMI countries had been made. However, the overall volume of applications received, has resulted in a growing proportion of these applications being rolled over for consideration at the end of the following month.
The consequence was that these applicants could find themselves waiting up to several months to confirm an MTI placement. This delay and uncertainty understandably caused real problems for individual applicants, employers, Colleges and Deaneries. The Department of Health, Health Education England and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges all believe that position was unsustainable and unfair to applicants. For the sake of transparency it was felt better to explicitly state that these applicants can have no guarantee or expectation of receiving a CoS, although they will not be barred from making applications.
The revised process is as follows:
A detailed statement from the Department of Health, Health Education England and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges will be going out shortly to all employers, Deans, Colleges and for potential applicants making clear:
A list of the countries which comprise the DfID priorities and the World Bank Low Income and Lower Middle Income countries is set out below. Applicants from any country not in this list will be covered by the new arrangements and can have no guarantee or expectation of receiving a COS. Afghanistan Armenia Bangladesh Benin Bhutan Bolivia Burkina Faso Burma Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Cote d’Ivoire Democratic Republic of Congo Djibouti Egypt, Arab Rep. El Salvador Eritrea Ethiopia Gambia, The Ghana Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Haiti Honduras India Indonesia Iraq Jordan Kenya Kiribati Korea, Dem. People’s Rep. Kosovo Kyrgyzstan Lao PDR Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Micronesia, Fed. Sts. Moldova Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Nepal Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Occupied Palestinian Territories Pakistan Papua New Guinea Philippines Rwanda Samoa Sao Tome and Principe Senegal Sierra Leone Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sri Lanka Sudan Swaziland Syria Tajikistan Tanzania Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Tunisia Uganda Ukraine Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vietnam West Bank and Gaza Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe